I found the above. It may apply only to Durham. It would be a good idea to contact the police force of whatever municipality you are in.

If it's a specific dog you should involve Police and your animal control people anyway. In my case the OSPCA was useless but that may be the office in my area. However my fear with a 120 lb. dog was for myself and I called Police out twice. Police, I found, will get involved if there is a threat to a human. It was OPP. You can see that if I had to call them twice the first time out was not effective on the owner. Even after the second time Police came the dog continued to escape (the owner blamed his 8 year old child) and I took to carrying the handle of a hockey stick, even in summer.

I strongly urge you to contact your Police Dept. and get your answer in writing or at least have them point you to the criminal code number. You could get yourself into a world of trouble following internet advice.

This weapon is illegal in Canada as my quick googling points out. BUT like everything else, there are nuances involved, so some of these things are more legal than others. It depends on their construction it seems. If it has a spring, it's illegal.

Cops, and security agents can have this weapon, not a dog owner. You may get someone to sell it to you but it's illegal.

A simple call to your police department can easily verify this.

"The weapons, which have a steel ball on the end to concentrate impact, are made up of segments that collapse into a handle. Only batons that use a spring to extend, or are flexible and function in a whiplike fashion, are illegal in Canada. The legal batons are extended by a flick of the wrist."http://www2.canada.com/theprovince/n...e-a5bc3ea3f7ea

Thanks for the replies. I have read the sites mentioned (and everything else I could find on line). The definitive answer seems elusive.

The inquiry was precipitated by a conversation I had with someone "in the business". He insisted that, as long as you don't use a baton in a threatening manner against any person (or even suggest that this would be a possibility), and insist that it is simply a tool (to, for example, protect against a dog attack), the extendable (not spring loaded) batons were quite legal to carry in Ontario. Frankly, I found it hard to believe, but this is certainly not my field of expertise.

Quite frankly, I often have my dog with me wherever I go, and wanted to keep one in my vehicle - this, even forearmed with the realization that, if I ever actually found myself in need of this "tool", it would undoubtedly be locked safely back in my vehicle, and not in my hand at the time.